


Small Talk

by MeredithBrody



Category: NCIS: New Orleans
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 11:45:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13387140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeredithBrody/pseuds/MeredithBrody
Summary: Two years changes a lot of things.





	Small Talk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PinkAngel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkAngel/gifts), [galia_carrots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galia_carrots/gifts), [Stargateloversteph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stargateloversteph/gifts).



> This is not a permanent return to this fandom, and is probably as good place as any to say that “Past, Present and Future Hearts” is on hold, probably until at least April if not the summer. I was totally taken in by Designated Survivor and I have fics in that I need to write. Anyway, this is all the fault of my friend stargate-lover-steph, who has been torturing me with Prody for hours. This is both Prody and Brames. Once again I’ll say, I haven’t watched since the end of season 2, I have no idea what’s going on since most of my friends have given up watching it now too, so here I am, writing something in my own AU, I suppose. Anyway, enjoy this pile of shite, I have no idea if I can even still write these assholes.

Five hundred and twenty eight days. That had been how long it had been since he’d last seen Meredith Brody. Four hundred and seventy two days since he’d last spoken to her. Exactly five minutes since he’d last thought about her. They had had one perfect night together, but after that she’d decompensated, then Russo had come along and she’d disappeared. He knew by now that he had to move on, she’d probably moved on, but she was still there in the back of his mind. Every turn he made he imagined her and what she’d say.

Maybe the approach of the second anniversary of her leaving was why he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head today even more than usual. It was late, and he knew that he needed to think about going to bed but he couldn’t stop staring at the picture he had of her on his desk. He was still staring at it when he heard the gate opening and then footsteps. He didn’t look up until he heard the voice. The last voice. “Hi, Dwayne.”

“Meredith?” He asked quietly, seeing her stood there. He had imagined this moment a million times. Her hair was longer, slightly curlier and lighter. She was beautiful, as she always was, but she looked like she’d filled out a little. He’d said a few times he should feed her up.

She smiled at him in that way that had always made his heart stop and then race. The smile that he wasn’t sure anyone got to see. She waved a little, looking around the office, clearly trying to work out what was different. “It’s me.”

“Oh my god.” He ran over to her and couldn’t resist the urge to kiss her deeply. It should have made his next question unnecessary, but it didn’t. He still felt like he needed to make sure that this wasn’t some sort of solid hallucination. “Are you really here?”

He couldn’t stop touching her, making sure that she was really there. She was still smiling, not telling him to stop or moving to step away, but he felt there was something that was stopping her already. “For a week but…” 

“But?” He froze at that, and it was only then that he realised there would of course be a but. She wasn’t going to have returned after all this time without a major reason. He knew that he was probably going to hate this but, and that made him want to cut her off with another kiss, make her forget. 

“I’m married, Dwayne.” She said before he could do it, and he had been right, he hated it. He dropped his hands instantly and just looked at her. She smiled a little and held her hand up, showing him the rings on her finger. An engagement ring, a wedding ring and an eternity ring. She had a child. He knew what that meant.  “And I have a little girl.” She finished, confirming his thoughts. “I got married, six months after I left. I was in the UK, with James… and I kept thinking back to my time here but I knew I couldn’t come back.” She spoke so carefully about it, but he knew what she was saying. 

“I… don’t really know what to say.” He replied, he had never expected that she would have been married. That she would have gone back to James. Why he hadn’t thought about that he didn’t know, but that was the last thing he’d expected. He just wished that she’d been there. “I wish you did come back. I think about you all the time, I couldn’t get over you without knowing you were safe.”

“I’m safe, I’m fine.” She confirmed then wrapped her arms back around him and he couldn’t help but pull her closer. “God I’ve missed you.” She whispered that, and he wasn’t sure that she even realised she’d said it out loud. “I need to go and get Millie out the car, I just… wanted to make sure you were here.” 

“You have your baby with you?” He asked, assuming that that was who Millie was. He wondered if she was named for Merri’s sister, then realised that that was a stupid thing to be asking. Of course this baby was named for Emily Brody. That was the only constant in Merri’s life, that and James, it seemed.

“I do, just give me one second.” She stepped away and headed back out and a minute later carried a carseat with a sleeping baby in it. The baby looked older than he’d expected, but it was nice to see Merri as a mother. “This is Millie, she’s sound asleep though. I think the flight took it out of her.” She set the seat on his desk and made sure that she was covered up. “She’s 8 months old.”

“I just… wow.” He couldn’t believe everything that had changed in her life and he didn’t really know what to think about it all. How did he tell her now that he wanted her back if she had a family and a life now. A life that he wasn’t involved in.

“Yeah.” She said quietly, and he just came over and looked at the sleeping infant, feeling Merri looking at him. “Dwayne… she could have been ours if I’d stayed, couldn’t she?” That question was one that he didn’t really want to answer.

“That clearly wasn’t the way our lives were meant to go.” He lifted the blanket up again, realising that the baby looked just like Merri, so he assumed that she also looked like her namesake. “But I wish she was mine. I love you, I have loved you… and now it’s time for me to let go.”

“I love you too, but you would never have left this… and I would never have wanted you to.” That was another reason, probably more the reason that she didn’t come back rather than why she had left. “What James and I have is safe, steady… dependable. I have a good job, he does as ever.”

“What do you do?” He was curious about that, as she had told him that she had needed to leave the job, but he knew that she wasn’t amazing qualified for anything else. She learnt fast though, she could probably do anything she put her mind to.

“I’m a victim support officer for Greater Manchester Police.” That once again seemed very simple. “He’s doing the same as he ever did, that’s why I’m meeting him here the day after tomorrow. I wanted to come and see you first.” He felt her turn to him again. “I miss you, but I’m happy… and I don’t want you to keep waiting for me.”

“I just have to do one thing before I agree to that.” There was nothing really going through his mind, but he pulled her close to him and kissed her deeply, feeling her hands quickly turn to pull him closer too. They weren’t going to stop this it felt like, but he knew that he needed to. He just couldn’t.

“Dwayne…” She said when she pulled back a little, but she almost instantly kissed him back again. After another second she really pulled back and shook her head. “No, I really can’t. I’m married now and even though I want this with all my heart… I have to give it to him. It’s been him all along.”

“You were always his, really. Weren’t you?” That was a question that He should have asked a long time ago. If it had always been James at least he’d know that he had never really been a choice.

“There was a time I was yours, but time wasn’t on our side.” Merri looked back to the baby as if remembering all she had now and shook her head. “I’m going to take her back to our hotel. I’ll see you again before I leave, Dwayne.” She kissed his cheek once more then picked up the car seat with her daughter in it and turned to leave. He almost couldn’t believe that he’d had this, and part of him wished that it was a dream. The picture that she’d handed him, of them laughing together on her last mardi gras told him that it wasn’t though. She was out of his reach forever now, and he needed to accept that.


End file.
